Boston basks in lie-flat comfort

March 15, 2017

JetBlue’s front-cabin Mint service is expanding to more transcon routes. (Image: JetBlue)

Thanks to JetBlue, flat-bed seats on transcontinental flights are spreading from the New York market to Boston. And that is music to the ears of West Coasters who have to endure those six-hour hauls. Boston is so. far. away! And so is California…

When JetBlue introduced its Mint front-cabin service, which offers lie-flat seats and other perks to premium passengers, it was initially limited to the highly competitive New York-Los Angeles and New York-San Francisco markets dominated by United, Delta and American.

What started out as an experiment by JetBlue – offering biz-class service with a lie-flat seat comparable to its competitors but at lower fares – became a huge success for the carrier’s bottom line. So it started fitting out more aircraft with flat-seat Mint cabins and expanding the service to more transcontinental markets – starting with its three daily San Francisco-Boston flights.

Last September, Delta announced plans to re-enter the San Francisco-Boston market on June 8 with two daily roundtrips, using 757-200s. Delta has four models of 757-200s, one of which offers lie-flat seats in its first class cabin. And those are the 757s Delta will use on the BOS-SFO route.

And something else is happening June 8: United reportedly plans to change the aircraft mix on its San Francisco-Boston flights from the current 757-300s, 777-200s and 737-900s to just two types: 777-200s and 757-200s, all with lie-flat seating in the front cabin.

JetBlue, meanwhile, plans to boost frequencies in the BOS-SFO market by adding a fourth daily Mint roundtrip in July. Game on.

Looking ahead to June when the competition heats up, business class fares on jets with lie-flat seats in the Boston-San Francisco and Los Angeles market are currently running at about $1,200 roundtrip. Flights with standard recliner seats are as low as $892 roundtrip.

JetBlue’s current and upcoming Mint routes. (Image; JetBlue)

Meanwhile, JetBlue has also put Mint-equipped A321s onto its Boston-Los Angeles flights as of last fall. So far, we haven’t see any front cabin flat-bed response from its competitors on that route. United, Delta and American all use 737-800s on their BOS-LAX flights. (However, Delta plans to use flat-seat 757-200s on its new transcon route from Washington Reagan National to LAX that starts next month.)

(Note: Virgin America is in all these transcon markets, but it doesn’t offer true flat-bed seats in the front cabins of its Airbus jets.)

If JetBlue’s competitors decide to offer a comparable premium product on BOS-LAX, this flat-seat fight could spread to even more markets.

JetBlue’s longer-term plan for Mint includes deployment of the flat-bed front cabin on more transcon routes in the months ahead including Boston-Seattle, Boston-San Diego, New York-San Diego and New York-Las Vegas, along with San Francisco-Ft. Lauderdale and Los Angeles-Ft. Lauderdale.

What do you think about the emerging lie-flat wars? Is lie-flat really necessary on a domestic flight? Which airline do you use for transcons and why? Please leave comments below!

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Agreed. Unless it’s a red eye I’m not going to sleep anyway (messes with my jet lag recovery big time) so wouldn’t go flat in any event. Do like those Mint amenities though.

Hajime Sano

As I mentioned on the previous post for this subject, I don’t think UA has yet to fully commit to this flatbed concept. As of Mar. 14, Jun. 8 doesn’t yet show any flatbed flights SFO-BOS.

I read elsewhere that UA has pulled back from its initial all flatbed (B777-200, B757-200) statement and has gone to two B777-200 flat beds per day, with the balance of its flights on standard B737-800. That is what I see in the June 21-25 time frame for BOS-SFO.

I spoke with UA Premier Gold reservations on Mar. 14. They confirmed that these B777 flatbed seats are available through Complimemtary Premier Upgrades unlike the p.s. flights. There is also no hefty co-pay on miles upgrades unlike the p.s. flights.

Now if UA would only start flatbed seats in the LAX-BOS market. 🙂

Bill Rubin

You then are welcome to take the discounted recliner seats for domestic First. I love the space and priavacy of the Mint product and love that it’s on the BOS-LAX route I fly so often. I’ve used the AA 77W for all my LAX-MIA trips, since it also has the flat bed business/First seats in an international configuration. I have been flying AA for LAX-DCA but may shift to DL when it starts its 757 flat bed DeltaOne service in April.

I’d love to see JetBlue offer Mint for LAX to Dulles or DCA to bring serious flat bed competition to thar market, as well. Perhaps that might push UA and/or AA to do the same.

The only other market I crave for flatbeds is LAX-CLT…but that seems unlikely for the time being. I’d imagine Alaska or UA would try it first as SFO-CLT to connect the if financial centers.

Salvatore Johnson

I am so jealous. I fly from Washington Dulles and for years Jet-Blue was the way to fly out to Long Beach and Oakland. But they just didn’t succeed, probably thanks to United who could be the worst. So you folks in Boston and JFK enjoy a great airline and if anyone from JetBlue is reading this, please come back to Dulles

jeff

Honest to goodness unless it is an overnighter I find it a waste. I may be a little jaded but I don’t find a 6 hour flight that miserable in a regular FC seat. (Disclaimer: I go to Asia fairly regularly so scale comes into play).

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